An alternative alliance of council candidates in Dunedin has come together to promote shared values such as climate action and social justice.
They have called themselves The People’s Hub, representing a "credible progressive alternative for Dunedin", and made up of 15 candidates for the Dunedin City Council and five for the Otago Regional Council.
Many of them were at the corner of George St and Moray Pl yesterday, where the hub is located, discussing progressive causes and encouraging people to vote.
Regional council candidate Alex King said the collaboration was his idea and other candidates had warmed to it.
It was partly about helping voters to work out who might be of like mind to them, he said.
"It certainly can be quite difficult to work your way through all the candidates in the booklet and it’s a wee bit of a challenge if you want to be serious about who to choose," Mr King said.
The list included candidates endorsed by the Labour and Green parties, Radical Action Faction and Building Kotahitaka, as well as some independent candidates.
Mr King, a first-time candidate, said lessons had been learnt already.
"There’ll be things that we’ll do differently next time, so we might start a bit earlier and be a bit more comprehensive, but we’ve got a great lineup of 20 candidates that are participating in the hub," he said.
Dunedin mayoral and city council candidate for the Green Party Mickey Treadwell promoted the importance of thinking ahead, and being prepared to take any consequences that came with this.
City council candidate Heike Cebulla-Elder advocated for traffic speed reductions.
Candidates were keen to revive the Southerner passenger train as a regular service.
Mr King said he would like to see a younger city council elected, as it needed rejuvenation and could benefit from fresh ideas.
The city council and mayoral candidates aligned with the hub are Jett Groshinski, Lachlan Akers, Ruthven Allimrac, Rose Finnie, Lily Warring, Mr Treadwell, Evelyn Robertson, Cyndee Elder, Anna Knight, Rachel Brazil, Richard Knights, Ms Cebulla-Elder, Cr Steve Walker, Cr Marie Laufiso and Jen Olsen.
The hub’s regional council candidates are Elliot Weir, James Cockle, Mr King, Phil Glassey and Alan Somerville.
